UVM Food Feed

The Future of Agriculture in Vermont: Land Transfers & New Farmers

Posted by Guest Author | January 17, 2017

By Travis Marcotte

It’s no secret that Vermont farmers are aging and that a significant amount of farmland in Vermont will change hands in the coming years. According to the American Farmland Trust, the average age of a Vermont farmer is 57 years old, and farmers at or above retirement age manage 30 percent of all land in production. Simultaneously, Vermont is one of a few states where the total number of farms is actually increasing, growing by about 5 percent between 2007 and 2012 to 7,338 farms. We know that there are both great challenges and opportunities ahead for Vermont’s agricultural sector as many beginning farmers transition to new land.

Luckily, Vermont has a robust network of experienced service providers to help farms navigate finding new land, starting their businesses, and staying successful as beginning farmers.

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Posted in Vermont | Tagged education, farming, local foods, Vermont | 3 Comments

Family is the Secret to Success at an Award-Winning Hyde Park Dairy Farm

Posted by Guest Author | January 12, 2017

By Laura Hardie

As Vermont’s current “Outstanding Dairy Farm of the Year” winner, Kirk Lanphear of Lanphear Farm has spent the past few months being what he calls “happy busy,” fielding calls and emails about the award. When he was asked to host an open house as the state winner, he was happy to oblige, but didn’t expect 340 people showing up in Hyde Park offering their congratulations.

Every year, one farm in each of the New England states wins the prestigious award that is managed by the New England Green Pastures Program committee. It all began in 1947 when the then Governor of New Hampshire said, “I challenge the other New England States to produce better pasture than New Hampshire’s and I bet a hat that they can’t do it.”

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Posted in Vermont | Tagged dairy, farming, Vermont | Leave a comment

Organic Farming’s Deep Roots in Soil

Posted by Guest Author | January 7, 2017

By Maddie Monty

Lady Eve Balfour was an early pioneer of organic farming. Born in the U.K. in 1898, she bought her first farm in 1919 and in 1939 launched The Haughley Experiment, the first long-term comparative study of organic and chemical-based farming. Her 1943 book, The Living Soil, became a foundational text of the organic movement.

In it, she wrote: “The criteria for a sustainable agriculture can be summed up in one word—permanence, which means adopting techniques that maintain soil fertility indefinitely; that utilise, as far as possible, only renewable resources; that do not grossly pollute the environment; and that foster life energy (or if preferred biological activity) within the soil and throughout the cycles of all the involved food-chains.”

Photo: Flickr/Creative Commons
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Posted in Environmental, Vermont | Tagged Environment, farming, organic, organic farming, Vermont | 6 Comments

UVM Researcher Looks to Tackle Food System Challenges

Posted by Erica Houskeeper | January 4, 2017

Finding solutions to strengthen the food system is what drives Serge Wiltshire. Serge, who is pursuing a PhD at UVM, completed UVM’s Breakthrough Leaders for Sustainable Food Systems in 2014 and earned a master of science in Food Systems at UVM the following year.

We talked to Serge, a graduate researcher and teaching assistant, about the viability of pasture-based dairy production in Vermont, grass-based alternatives, and bringing about positive change in the food system.